Gina Moreland won the Jefferson Award for her work as President of Habitot Children's Museum Board of Directors. She founded, funded and established a permanent home for the museum. **Gina Moreland
9/11/06
{Frederic Larson/The Chronicle } Ran on: 09-17-2006
Gina Moreland founded Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley, which opened in 1998. less

Gina Moreland won the Jefferson Award for her work as President of Habitot Children's Museum Board of Directors. She founded, funded and established a permanent home for the museum. **Gina Moreland
9/11/06 ... more

Photo: Frederic Larson

Photo: Frederic Larson

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Gina Moreland won the Jefferson Award for her work as President of Habitot Children's Museum Board of Directors. She founded, funded and established a permanent home for the museum. **Gina Moreland
9/11/06
{Frederic Larson/The Chronicle } Ran on: 09-17-2006
Gina Moreland founded Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley, which opened in 1998. less

Gina Moreland won the Jefferson Award for her work as President of Habitot Children's Museum Board of Directors. She founded, funded and established a permanent home for the museum. **Gina Moreland
9/11/06 ... more

As a new mother and a former elementary school science teacher, Gina Moreland was frustrated to find that most museums catered to older children and few offered hands-on learning to those under the age of 5. She founded Habitot Children's Museum in 1992 with the support of fellow East Bay parents and community members. It took another six years and the help of generous donors and landlords before the doors of the Berkeley museum opened in 1998.

"It has become a community center where families from all walks of life can come, gather and get ideas from one another," said Moreland, noting that there are 180,000 kids under the age of 6 living in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Habitot reaches its audience by working with literacy and early childhood programs, granting scholarships and offering one or two free admission days a month so the center's rich play environment is accessible to all children, regardless of their financial situation.

Moreland, 52, moved to California in the 1970s. She grew up in suburban Texas surrounded by fields of cows and nature reserves. She remembers it as a time when stay-at-home mothers congregated along the backyard fence. She acknowledges that the lifestyle does not exist anymore -- especially in the Bay Area, where the cost of living has even middle-class families struggling.

"Habitot is essential for the community -- it's like a library that helps kids get the right start and assists parents in the community," she said.

The museum offers urban children a chance to experience nature in an indoor setting, but Moreland's goal is to offer them an opportunity to explore the outdoors as well.

"Being able to dig in the dirt, climb trees and build forts allows children to be agents of change," said the mother of two.

She hopes to relocate Habitot to a larger facility in Emeryville that has triple the square footage of its current location and could accommodate 150,000 to 200,000 people annually.

Each week, The Chronicle features a Bay Area resident who has won a Jefferson Award for making a difference in his or her community. The awards are administered by the American Institute for Public Service, a national foundation that honors community service. Bay Area residents profiled in The Chronicle are also featured on CBS 5-TV and KCBS-AM, which are Jefferson Award media partners, along with The Chronicle.